LMS Saga Continues With an Unsuccessful Upgrade

My LMS received and upgrade last night and of course at first I was excited. The message in my inbox this morning read "...upgrade is now complete as we have moved the files to live site. Everything seems to be working fine but would you be able to do some testing on your end in the morning?" Sounds promising right. WRONG.

I found 13 issues for them that need to be fixed. After that my head started spinning and I wasn't sure what was right and what was wrong. I'm not even sure what was upgraded. There are a few tweaks here and there, but when I hear upgrade I am for some reason always expecting new things to WOW me. A label having it's colour changed is not going to make any difference to the system's performance.

Ah yes, another typical day at work.

Articulate Interaction - How to Navigate an Articulate Based Course

I've been working for months and months to get an LMS up and running for my organization (do a search for LMS on my blog and you'll see the overall journey) now the real fun begins. I now have so many people coming to me asking for this course to be created and that one. Seems as if everyone has something that has to be taught by the end of the year to all staff because the Ministry of Health says so. Regardless of that fact the LMS is now slowly being populated with courses and not just classroom based.

One of my concerns though is not everyone in our organization is familiar with taking an online course. Many would be able to just sit down at a computer and know immediately how to navigate though a course. Some who have never taken an online course would still be technically savvy enough to work their way through on their own. But, then there are all the others who are less technically inclined and perhaps even a little afraid of trying this "new" method of learning.

These are the staff that I need to consider when creating a course and need to include a "how to navigate" lesson or tutorial. I'm using Articulate to create courses for our learners. During the pilot of the LMS one of the courses created had many slides at the beginning (that could be skipped) that explained all the components that the learner would see or could see while taking the course. Once the pilot was over I discovered that this was probably not the best method for delivering the tutorial piece. Letting them skip over it was good, but it still muddled the over all look of the course. So what I have done now instead was to create the same interaction, but have included it instead as a help tab that can be accessed at any point during the course.

I've included a short Screenr video below that lets you see the interaction as it runs within a course. I have tried to make it "neutral" so it could be inserted into any course and that anyone could use it in their courses outside of our organization.

It's all about REUSE! So, if you'd like to use the interaction yourself please feel free to download and use it in your own courses.

Download: How to Navigate an Articulate Based Course Interaction.

Composing a TweetBook for DevLearn 2009

A while ago a Twitter project from another conference was tweeted by Mark Oehlert about a compilation of all the tweets that came out from conference attendees in to one digital book. The conference had well over 4000 tweets posted during it's run. Thinking this was a really intriguing idea and an incredible challenge I contacted Brent Schlenker at the eLearning Guild and began discussing a similar project be launched for the upcoming DevLearn conference in San Jose.

After several emails and phone calls about the best method to collect possibly that many tweets and more we devised a system that we hope will help to group the tweets once they come out into categories for posting them to the collective book. Once the conference is finished the hope is that the book will contain a complete collection of tweets broken into "overall conference" postings and "individual session" postings. It will then be made available to members of the eLearning Guild as a digital book.

If you will be attending this year's conference I hope you will be tweeting all the best bits of "What's What" and "Who's Who" for those of us that are unable to attend. Also, if you can remember the hashtag system we've created to assist in grouping the tweets into more significant chunks of infomation it will help those that wish to read postings about specific topics within the conference much more efficiently.

• For the OVERALL CONFERENCE (example: keynotes, expo, masterclasses, breakfast bytes, demofest, evening gatherings, etc.) - use #DL09
  


• For INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS (example: concurrent sessions (Session 209 "Five Easy Steps to Create e-Manuals for the iPhone and iPod"), and Certificate Programs (P1 "Designing Scenario-based e-Learning ") - use #DL09-SESSION NUMBER (ie: #DL09-209 or #DL09-P1)

Looking forward to seeing some great coverage from the tweeters at DevLearn.

Not attending and want to follow all the action. Use your Twitter search tool of choice and search for DL09 (no hashtag #) to see all tweets (including user DL09) or filter by searching for #DL09 or #DL09-session number (for a specific session).

Using #lrnchat as an example of the benefits of an online social group

Discussion Task for Online Course: select one effective moderating principle that you feel most comfortable with OR most challenged by, briefly explain why.

I feel most comfortable with the principle of "Moderating Takes Place in Both a Professional and Social Context" because of the numerous social online communities I am currently involved in. The first 2 questions posed in this section of the text (Facilitating Online Learning) asks "if one would see any real benefits from participating in a cyber community" and the other "can the feeling of community be created online?"

I see both of these being answered with a loud and clear yes. I currently participate in a weekly online chat that takes place through Twitter called #lrnchat. Each week 3 questions are posted to the group over the course of an hour and a half. The benefits each week are that I know I am guaranteed to learn something new or be directed to a new elearning resource that I previously was unaware. Brainstorms occur constantly as the conversation progresses through the course of the evening. One can see an increased progression in the discussion and even the energy level as the dialogue goes back and forth from one participant to another.

As for the feeling of community, I too think this group has an overwhelming sense of community as once the event is complete the same people continue to chat the remainder of the week. They continue sharing information, asking questions of one another, looking for guidance, support, and motivation in regards to the own increased learning, careers and even personal goals.
The person that moderates gives the questions to the group, keeps the group basically on track and on time. However, because the discussion quickly takes a life of it's own, they too are able to participate further increasing the knowledge of the group.

What is truly wonderful is each week the group grows little by little and because it is an online event there are participants from all over the world involved. Primarily because of the timing most are from North America, but that is not a steadfast rule and because of that we each gain increased perspective from various cultures. I'm truly thankful to have found the group and even more grateful to the moderator for creating and maintaining the group weekly.

How I Created Help Tutorials for My LMS

Since I had so few people come out to my drop-in sessions about the new LMS I was completely unable to train the 2700+ staff on how to use the system. I do think that we were able to configure it and create labels that make it fairly self-explanatory. Also, although it looks nothing like something staff here familiar with online learning would be use to, I believe the navigation is similar and this should help minimize the panic calls that will inevitably come to me.

Another step to creating this LMS more user friendly is that I am creating small one to two minute tutorial videos for learners to walk through should they need help. I've broken them into very small chunks and the reason for my thinking here is to allow the user to only have to view those sections of the system where they need assistance.

The steps to create my little videos isn't quite as streamlined as one might imagine, but after doing 4 or 5 of them now, I believe I've got the process worked out.

1. First I open up the LMS as a student would. I take many screen captures walking them through one step to the next (i.e. the screens one would see when looking to see what courses they are enrolled in). There are tons of tools to use to grab a screen capture, but I've been using the function included within Evernote.
2. I put all my screen shots into PowerPoint and then add some "pretty" text bubbles to each screen shot explaining in a few sentences what they see on that screen. I then copy the text in the bubble into the notes area to function as a script for the tutorial.
3. Next (I'm using Articulate) I open up the option to record narration and I read the "script" out loud. I am not producing my tutorials with sound because too few computers here have speakers, but it does create a good timing mechanism for advancing slides based on the spoken text.
4. After this step, I use the annotations to highlight or point out what is being shown on that screen shot.
5. I then go into the Audio Editor and "silence" the sound on each slide I just recorded text on. This is more a cosmetic aspect because I don't want the speech to be accidentally heard if I produce the tutorial in a different manner. I haven't been reading the text as perfectly as I would want to if I was expecting someone to actually listen.
6. Once this step is done, I publish the file and then view it in my browser window.
7. The next piece was finicky only because of the intranet system we use and the LMS feeds into it. The intranet does not accept FLV files it only takes SWF files. The reason I say this is it would have been very easy to capture the published file with Screenr.com (another articulate fabulous tool). But I couldn't figure out how to get the flv to swf without buying something somewhere. So instead I minimize my browser window to "just the right size" use Jing and start walking through the tutorial I created.
8. As the tutorial indicates to the learner to advance the page, I do manually and the video capture continues to capture the entire tutorial as if it is running on its own. The reason for video capturing the tutorial and not just loading it is again an intranet quirk that doesn't let me load up all of the files that are created when one publishes a "course" using Articulate. It wouldn't matter what I used, the intranet allows one file at a time and that is all.
9. Finally on my "login" screen to the LMS I have listed beside the login button all the tutorials I have created. They are not perfect in that they are only 500 px x 375 px (again an intranet limitation). Within the LMS however, I also video captured the tutorials in a larger size so that they are readable.
10. Lastly I plan on breaking down the original slides I created and minimizing them into a more handy printable version as well that learners can take away with them should they choose too.

Here is an example of one of my tutorials (captured with Screenr.com):

Blog Action Day 2009 is October 15th

This year's Blog Action Day topic is Climate Change. I hope you will consider participating this year by donating one post on your blog to this topic. Take a look at the site to register your blog. There are currently 700+ registered reaching over 4 million readers.

"First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of Poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. This year we aim to do the same for Climate Change, an issue that threatens us all." - http://www.blogactionday.org/

LMS Launched with a Successful Whisper

Well I was pleasantly happy to finally get the LMS I've been working on for the last 2 years up and running for the organization. Unfortunately the organization did not seem to share my enthusiasm for the event.

My wonderful idea of having open drop in sessions all day long (30 minutes in length) for staff to stop by and see the system, brought in a huge crowd of 15 people. Not great when there is a staff of 2700+. My webinars the previous week had about 30 management staff sit in and view the demo. Also, not great when there are about 120 on the management team. Finally, my sitting in the main lobby and letting people use laptops to try out the system saw one person come by and ask why I was there. Hence my tweet yesterday about how no one cares what you are doing unless you are giving away food or a prize.

So what lessons have I learned so far. I believe that since I work in a health care environment, just in time is what we live for. People are not interested in what the "next" thing is until the absolutely need to know about it. We run Core Curriculum every January (WHMIS, ER Codes, etc) and everyone is tested on these topics. Everyone knows about them. Everyone will now have walk through the material and quizzes online through the system. This is when they will look to me asking what it is and how they use the system. So a secondary roll out will be needed then. I doubt it will take the form of a drop in session, but more so visits to dept meetings.

I am actually a little glad that it came in quietly as it allows me further time to perfect a few quirks that I still see in existence. I can complete my help videos, which feedback so far has indicated are really well done and actually allow for little extra explanation. All the extra months work into getting the system to be extremely user friendly seems to have paid of as well in that those that did see it agreed it was very easy to navigate through. Between the tutorials and the layout the need for training may be minimized.

I am disappointed that 2 years of me working diligently came to a close with little fan fare, but at least I am extremely proud at the overall end result. I have had many requests now to begin to put this course and that course online, so the next large challenge will be to start learning how to schedule and produce these in a timely manner.

I shall keep posting about the LMS journey over the next few months and as mentioned the next large hurdle will be to get everyone to access it in January for the large education blitz.

Cheers to everyone who has offered so many words of encouragement through this project. You kudos, warm thoughts, and offer to lend your expertise in my times of wonderment have been invaluable!!!

(photo credit: By OneTHilllove )

LMS Launch Happens in 11 More Sleeps

Wow, I really can't believe that the day has finally come. It's been delayed countless times since Fall 2007 for one reason or another and now in 7 short business days (including today) it will be here in all it's glory.





(image retrieved from: Nasa http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/launch/index.html, Sept 10, 2009)

I speak of our (MY) LMS. It's mine now. I've lost much of my sight peering deeply into my computer monitors over the last many months tweaking the system, finding faults, fixing and testing. I'm alone on my side of the project, but the overall launch has much to do with the great help I eventually received through the vendor to get the system just right. Once I had one true contact on the vendor's side things really begin rolling and we come to where we are now. A system that I think will suit our needs very well as we boldly step into the new Millennium. (Oh right we've been here for a while.)

I know it won't meet all our needs. Health care training is complicated. I'm finding that staffing alone is complicated and knowing who is responsible for which nurse is not as easy as you might think. However, it will do what we need it to do for an initial system. It will test our staff to see how willing they are to train using this method, it will push some of our more seasoned staff to try new things, it will force us to look at this entire need in a much different light and perspective.

My launch plan currently is to continue to test over the next few days (there are some minor glitches still occurring). I'm conducting 10 webinars for the management team members all next week so that they may get a look at the system. They have not yet seen any piece of the tool. Flyers will be distributed electronically and posted on our message boards for staff to see. I will be hosting 30 minute drop-in sessions on the launch day all day for staff to come and see what it looks like. Finally, I'll be in our main lobby the days following the launch over the lunch time shifts with several laptops so that staff may demo the system as I sit there.

Future plans will be some greater hands on training with educators and trainers that will need to create courses, track students, etc. I'm also anticipating that there will be a need to do some hands on training with staff to get them comfortable with using the system. I may deploy this as after hours webinars so that staff may look at it from their own homes. The only issue here is that we don't yet have a home access solution yet, but I talked to the right people on the right day and have the powers-that-be (IT Dept) looking at an extranet solution.

So I haven't written much in a while here, but I think you may see why now. I've been scrambling madly to get everything working, populated, piloted and ready to go. I'll continue to post on my experiences over the next few weeks as my "years' work" begins to come to a close and a new phase begins.

Don't Forget You Do Have An Electronic Tone

I recently had my annual performance review that went very well. Always a good feeling afterwards to know, "Yes I have my job for another year." There were several things that I knew would be brought up as tasks or skills that I am performing at or above expectations. That's not to "toot my own horn", but what seems simple to you and I is above or beyond what my colleagues understand. (Note to self: if they can't figure out what you do, it's hard for them to replace you.)

Please don't get me wrong though, the review was not all roses. I honestly don't think a performance review ever should be that way. One should always walk away with something they need to improve or work towards. My take away that both did and did not surprise me was the tone that I sometimes convey within my emails. (WHAT?!?! you say)

My manager is an MBTI facilitator and profiled our department. One characteristic of myself that she has seemed to nail (a little to my dismay) is that what I feel I often say out loud. So instead of thinking and perhaps writing rationally I do so emotionally.

I did think that perhaps my emails were getting shorter and shorter and more and more to just the blunt point. I've been chalking this up to my many 140 character messages through twitter and the 160 I can make on my phone. (ie: A daughter's friend does not ask how you are, she writes Sup? Her cousin replies "nutin"). However, there was one particular email she pointed out to me from quite recently where my to my surprise I did compose in a quite a harsh manner.

Mid-July the IT department decided they needed to lock down the wallpaper of workstations to publish IP information (quick info) and to minimize the radical look of some workstations. At first I was really taken back and I suppose now slightly offended that they would take away this control I had over MY workstation.

I immediately fired off an email to the manager of the department, because I have a good working relationship with her and not thinking of any consequences it may bring. I was accusatory. "...very hand y for your dept, however I find it extremely controlling." I pointed out how uncustomer friendly THEY were. "These changes seem very little more than a matter of convenience for you..."

I did have many great points in my email, but they unfortunately lost much of their power due to the overall tone of the entire email.

So what have I learned from all this? When the need arises to confront a difficult topic through word (or email in this case) first and most important ....breathe. Take a moment. Walk away from the situation, then come back and put your points down. Next, write your email, read your email, re-read your email, as a colleague to read it, edit your email....send your improved email.

A phone call yesterday to the IT manager did reveal that she didn't read so much into the tone as my own manager had thought. However, someone (anyone) else may have been hurt by it and therefore miss the key points I was trying to make. The IT department did actually receive several other complaint and although the never released the background the did take away the nasty grey theme and gave us back the default blue. Ahhh - better on the eyes.

My point that I want to convey is that although the message may seem perfectly clear to you, the next person beside you can easily read it in a much different light. In a world so inundated with technology it is imperative to ensure that your words, thoughts and feelings come across in such a way that the main message is never lost and that relationships are not hurt. Some of these take years to build in the business world and only a moment (or word) to break.

What Makes Great eLearning?

I sat in and participated last night in the weekly #lrnchat through Twitter. If you haven't yet joined in to listen (read) and talk (write) in a #lrnchat session, you really should join us. Some extremely brilliant minds in the field of elearning (and I use that loosely as it includes social media, sims/games, teaching K-12 and beyond, etc) get together each week 8:30pm (EST) and chat over three questions posed by a moderator.

Question 2 asked to the group last night had to do with "What makes great elearning?" The brainstorm that followed was extremely interesting. I tried to capture the thoughts expressed into a mindmap (list version)(map version). I hope I have done the group justice in the way I grouped their ideas together in the map below. Please feel free to send me comments to add/adjust the image.

If you'd like to see the transcript from last night's chat or for any further information on the series of chats please look to the #Lrnchat Blog.

Abbot and Costello "Who's on First?" for 2009

(I'm not sure where is originated, but I received it as an email. If you do know who's it is please let me know so that I may give them full credit. It's really funny and I do remember my dad sharing the original routine with me when I was little. Enjoy!)

You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this:


COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT : Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT:! Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Window's.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.


COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on 'START'

1st Webinar a Success

I hosted our first webinar yesterday and it seems to have been quite successful. I didn't have a huge participation level, but I think that is a good thing for the first time. Had it failed miserably it would have been very embarrassing if there were tens of participants trying to get in.

We used GoToMeeting as it gave us room for 15 people during the trial phase. Although we were not collaborating during the webinar those features seemed decent and my trials with friends and functioned very well. I've participated in many different webinars and I would say the only thing I wasn't really keen on is that the chat area seemed "thin" and I could not expand it horizontally so that I could see more responses. It could be a few lines thicker.

As an organizer it seemed to function well. I was able to give controls to the presenter and them use them seamlessly to present their slides. I had 2 PowerPoint screens open on one of my monitors and the actual slide show opened on my other monitor. I flipped from my opening slides to the presenter's slides, previously gave them mouse control and she began immediately. I may try this slightly different the next time, but it seemed to work well.

Since the presenter was my supervisor, when she started referencing other documents I was able to open them up and drag them onto the screen for the participants to see as well. That was a great feature. Instead of her just walking through it on her side and the participants looking at the document on their side, I brought it up and continued to point to the items she was addressing. (This is the entire point of being able to do a webinar obviously.) It was simple to be able to share other documents other than just a slide show.

I had tried DimDim also as a trial with a colleague, but she could not hear my mic for some reason. I thought thought that it's interface was really nice, simple and user friendly. I may retry it again in the future. I also sat in on a WebEx webinar today and really liked it's platform as well. I guess it comes down to budget and which one falls within yours.

A few comments to remember when hosting. We started of the session with me explaining that we would be communicating through the chat, but because some people joined late and had dialed in they assumed that they could talk over the phone to the group. I'm not sure how to avoid this confusion as the presented did ask the participants during her presentation to type their answers in to the chat area. One person emailed us today and was wondering why no one was answer her when she talked. (Important for participants to show up early to webinar and make sure they get the instructions and can connect.)

I had one person have trouble dialling in to the conference number. She called my phone directly and told me that it kept telling her the line was disconnected. I didn't' know how to respond to her because I could see that others had been able to dial in to the session. I could only tell her to continue to try. She did eventually get connected. (Important for participants to show up early to webinar and make sure they get the instructions and can connect.)

I'm doing another session on July 14th so I'll see if any other developments come out of that one. For now we are thrilled with the results and believe we will try to host several others for our teams.

Learning Management Systems - Trends and Issues (Brandon Hall Research) Webinar

My notes taken during today's webinar.

Presented by Tom Werner & Richard Nantel

What do they do?

Automate the administration of training.

What do they contain?

Databases: learners, course offerings, content, progress.

Quick History:

1980 - paper age

• catalog, approvals, registrations, class info (all manually)
• attendance, evaluations, tests (all manually)
• count, charge-backs, reporting (all manually)
• process is dependent on people (admin staff)
• trainer dependent (collect and hand out materials)
• supervisor depended (boss had to tell you of courses available)
• measured by productivity or # of hours of training
• training very decentralized

1984 - Training Management Systems

1990 - Internet

1990s - Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, Google

• online training started being just courses posted on line, then moved to tracking who was taking them

2001 - Learning Management Systems (term coined)

7 Trends

1. Still many different LMS vendors (Brandon Hall tracks 92 of them, adding appx 15-20 each year since 5 years ago when they began. To be in the Brandon Hall report systems do not pay to be in it, but do have to answer an extremely detailed questionnaire. Updated every 12 -18 months.)

• consolidate? No it does not appear to be occurring, but is a continuing rumour.
• why so many? Good customer service generally. Once they have a customer they often don't lose them. Continue to innovate. There has not been a "Microsoft" or "Google" type of enterprise to buy up smaller companies.

2. So many features

• 88% have built in test systems
• 80% offer more than just English
• 80% offer many portals
• 78% offer classroom management
• 74% track certificate deadlines
• 64% have built in authoring
• 60% have LCMS features
• 50% handle e-Commerce

3. Interoperability with content (how lms and content within talk to one another)

• early standards were AICC
• standard now is SCORM (military pushed), This is a collection of standards including AICC. This is important to look for in a system.
• 87% are compliant,
• 86% are SCORM 1.2 (look for this as a minimum)
• 48% SCORM 2004 compliant (most recent version of SCORM).
• Just because it is compliant does not mean it will definitely run perfectly in your LMS. LMSs will tell you if they have tested with interoperability. (eg. tested with a vitural classroom, or with a SkillSoft course)

4. Integration with other large systems

• 43% have connected with PeopleSoft
• 40% with SAP (both of these are large HR employee tracking systems)
• 34% with Oracle

5. Software Hosting (SaaS)

• 68% of vendors say that more then 50% of their implementations are hosted
• hosting used to seem as an unsecure way to go, but not so much now as more banks and governments have gone to hosted solutions.

6. Talent Management

• many systems call themselves "Talent Development Systems" now
• (paper age - people issues were in silos e.g. career path, separate from training, separate from goals, etc) Now these can all be melded together.
• 60% of LMS they are tracking ..... (item missed)
• 38% offer feedback
• 38% offer succession planning

7. Web 2.0

• 2 way training, not just the trainer creating content but learners are too (Facebook, blogs, twitter, etc)
• Need to understand that there is learning then as a designed activity and that there is just generally keeping up with subjects (newspaper, rss, tv, blogs, journals) keeping up with information sources
• People are now learning on Google - search, amazon - recommendations, cnn - snippets, youtube - sharing, facebook/twitter - belonging
• (debate is this learning or not continues)
• 42% of systems allow searches
• 40% ... slide 116 (item missed)
• 26% peer ratings
• 20% blogs
• 17% wikis

Three Current Issues

1. LMSs for small and medium businesses

• needed affordable, minimal IT, limited training staff

2. Open source systems

• most know - Moodle, Sakai, Claroline, dokeos, OLAT, ilias, eFront

3. LMS's place in the "ecosystem"

• LMS as a piece of a larger system or collaborative learning environment
• Does it contain all the stuf, or is it a piece of a bigger environment

What's New for July 2009

Well frankly, not much is new at all, hence my reasoning for not posting anything in quite some time. My LMS pilot came and went. I'm now waiting for the vendor to complete the second phase of changes to the system. I was given a first set to review, did so and gave more feedback. As soon as the next set comes then we'll be very close to being able to launch the system for real onto the organization.

That is a very frightening thought. This has been one of my key areas of focus for the last 2 years and now it's finally coming to and end. Launching the LMS is going to be an entirely new problem. So many of our staff are not very computer savvy. There is a large lack of computers in the organization for staff to use so we're going to have to rely on them using them at home. However, the LMS isn't precisely available that way so a band aid solution of some sort will need to be created. Oh my head is spinning already.

To divert myself from this headache I've taken on hosting 2 webinars from our office. We've never done this before so I find it quite exciting. The only issue I see so far though is lack of registration. Only 16 staff were invited from a satellite area and out of those 16 only 3 have signed up. I guess that may be a good selling point though to the presenters. If they were to do the presentations in person it would have been a one hour drive to the facility to present to 3 people. At least by doing this as a webinar we've cut down on travel, gas, and time. All three of those factors more then "triple-negate" (if I can say that) the cost for one month of purchasing the webinar platform.

Today I have test runs with each presenter so it should be interesting. I'm hoping for a big success here as I would love to continue to run more. I'd love to hear from anyone that perhaps ran a webinar of a live event that was happening within there facility. I'm curious how or even if this is a good idea. I'm unsure as I've only ever sat in on webinars that were just that; schedule to only be a webinar and not a "broadcast" of another event.

Cheers everyone to a long and sunny July.

Things I learned before 9:00am today from Twitter

One of the first things I like to do in the morning is check the most recent tweets I've had pop in since the evening before. Since I'm connected to people around the world I do get quite a few.

I'm not a teacher, but this online course for K-12 educators is great resource for online educators of any sense. 21 things for the 21st Century Educator has just what it says. 21 quick topics with everything from Digital Citizenship to various online tools to your own professional development.

I also was shown through tweets, a link to How to activate tethering on any iPhone without jailbreaking. I was interested to see this because I didn't know what tethering meant but knew it could be exciting. I'm now a little less excited because it appears I need a Mac to utilize the steps here. Maybe after I update my software and read this a bit more I'll figure it out. I'd love to be able to use my iPod Touch more at work.

I also was put onto this great article and great web/iPhone application that allows consumers to be more aware of what they are purchasing as they purchase it. GoodGuide is an application "that lets consumers dig past the package's marketing spiel by entering a product's name and discovering its health, environmental and social impacts."

This site I can't wait to try later this evening when I upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0. It describes How to Use the Best 40 Features of iPhone 3.0. I'm sure this will take up most of my evening.

The final thing that caught my attention before 9:00 this morning was a blog posting - Web 3.0 explained....again! This posting is great because it links you directly to two SlideShare presentations 1: Web 3.0 explained with a stamp (pt I: the basics) and 2: Web 3.0 explain with a stamp (pt II: techniques). Don't let the slide count of each of the presentations scare you away. Both are simple, clean presentations that you can read through in about 5-10 minutes each. They get the point across quickly describing to the reader exactly what web 3.0 is, how we can utilize it and how benefit from out own expanding knowledge of technology can work for us.

Kids and Thier Very Public Digital Rants

I was talking to a colleague at work today who's son was upset with her because she wasn't going to allow him to have something that he wanted because of misbehavior. It was something very mild along the lines that he was not to have a friend over after school.

The son, not being too happy with the answer immediately went to facebook and updated his status to say just that. There was no foul language in the status update, but clearly there was a bit a a virtual tantrum displayed.

I'm curious how other's have handled this kind of situation with their children. There are very few that are not more technically savvy then us now so we are all aware that they know how to use the tools. Of course not every "tween" has a facebook account, nor children younger than that. I can not even begin to imagine how often teachers may have to face these kinds of comments, especially those that have more digitally adapted classes.

I'm not a teacher, and I am not a parent, but I am very curious to know how do we teach "our children" who are only beginning to grow and develop their own online identities to remain digitally respectful of others.

All comments are welcome on this topic as a general discussion.

Proper Language Can Be Confusing

Recently we had a team meeting discussing the scope of practice that we offer through our combined offices of Organization Development and Health Sciences Resource Centre. My colleague upon expanding on some of her duties that are offered through the library inserted this:

"Assistance with capture, transfer, scanning, manipulation & output of
information."

When I confronted her about which of her duties she was referring to; even she was confused by her own words. I jokingly asked if this referred to her having to help staff constantly figure out how to use the photocopier.

Today I modified the sentence slightly and did indeed post it above the photocopier in our office.

MOBILE LEARNING - eLearning Tour Part 1 - Hosted by Corporate Learning Trends and Innovation

One of the hardest things to find are real-life examples of different kinds of eLearning solutions. On May 21, Learn Trends will be hosting a free online
event where the people who have developed interesting eLearning solutions will
demonstrate and briefly discuss what they've done.

Moderators:

Judy Brown - Mobile Learning Solutions
Bob Mosher - Performance Support Tools
Karl Kapp - Games and Simulations
Tony Karrer - Self-Paced eLearning Solutions

Demonstrations will showcase a variety of different kinds of eLearning. We hope they will vary from practical solutions to common problems to leading edge solutions.

Mobile Learning
Everyone should begin to think about mobile learning, not as a replacement, but as an extra choice for the learner.

Many people seem to think that mobile learning is elearning lite, but it is much more than that and there is some much more that can be done with it. This will be our primary device for connectivity in the years to come.

Ideas:

• field guide
• alerts
• geo-blogging
• survey
• audio recordings
• on-demand access
• reporting
• reference
• simulation
• conferencing
• job aid
• check list
• decision support
• polls
• assignments
• presentations
• quiz
• just-in-time
• feedback
• note taking
• test
• reminders
• updates
• game-based learning
• augment reality
• transcription
• geo-exploration
• procedures
• coaching/mentoring
• translation
• capture/share/document

Podcasting

Try a two-person/interview-style podcast. You can even use a computer generated voice (text to speak technology) to ask you the questions you want to answer yourself within the interview.

http://mlearnopedia.com & http://cc.mlearnopedia.com

Opportunities

-good for downtime/deadtime we all have as we travel

-don't always have to be made by a real person

-auto generate podcasts with each new story or posting (use latest versions of text to speech TTS)

More info/discussion forum: http://learntrends.ning.com/forum/topics/innovative-approaches-to?xgs=1 or contact vonkosch@comcast.net

Abilene Christian University - George Saltsman & Bill Rankin

appx. 5000 students (total)

Gave all first year students iPod phones or touches (their choice).

Reasoning - everything is moving mobile very quickly and student value mobility. Looking for something that they could do a variety of things with, need low power resources, and could be used easily during personal downtime.

Started by creating a video and a day in the life. How would everything look differently if every student had an iPod. (VIDEO www.acu.edu/connected)

Portal m.acu.edu (doesn't work as well on Internet explore, but well on Safari & Macs)

Has news, events, campus maps (buildings & maps) {built whole campus in Google 3d}, guide about campus, then my mobile - classes, campus balances -meals, books, etc, files can be sent to students or classes, grades, polling of students)

Also have a live word cloud tool (using the polling) - from the web. Attendance.

Goals:

• Increase student learning
• Increase student engagement
• Increase university awarement
• Advance undergraduate enrollment (and faculty)
• foster a culture of innovation on campus

2/3rds selected phones 1/3rd selected touch (usually because too difficult to switch out of current contracts)

Positives students believe

• increase in their grade, attention, involvement, interest
• increased active learning, contact with professor and teacher, overall class experience

Faculty feedback

• success
• communication
• easy
• regularly

is generally happy of performance (not yet perfected).

Not based on a particular device, but more so what they are offering on the device. Brings the info to them instead of having to find it. Situational learning.

What does it require?

• space for lots of data
• redesign campus facilities for mobility & collaboration
• infrastructure for synchronous and asynchronous access by all
• infrastructure for creation and participation by all
• etc.

saltsman@acu.edu and rankinw@acu.edu

LMS pilot is coming to a close

Well my pilot for my LMS is coming to an end this Friday. I had about 20 participants and at this time only 4 Evaluations have been returned. I don't like those odds too much, however I do know that last minute seems to be a way of life where I work. Granted everyone is over worked, but I had hoped for a larger response without having to remind everyone to submit their thoughts to me regarding the system.

I'll have the results of my pilot here early next week.

Happy May 2-4 to all my Canadian friends!

Waiting for the Results

I'm still anxiously awaiting the results from my pilot launch of the LMS. I set my SME's and a few others loose on it last Friday and surprisingly have not heard much back yet. During the meeting where I gave them all the information and tasks list for the pilot there was a great amount of feedback and questions of does the system do this and that. I'm hoping that they will bring these questions and concerns through to the end of the pilot where I will share the results with the vendor.

I'd like to see that my concerns are mirrored in the needs that they will have for tracking and teaching of our staff. My department believes, and they might be justified, that I'm looking at the entire system to closely and have skewed values for a better system than what truly exists out there at all for our needs. I'm almost sure I'm not mistaken, but we'll see as the pilot progresses.

In the meantime I've gone forward with trying to create templates that my SME's will be able to use to start creating some content for the system. However, this is one of those things that I'm having a little difficulty with finding information on how to best accomplish this kind of process. I'm just "winging it" for now. If anyone has some example templates or good web resources I'd be excited to see them

LMS Pilot Launch is Official

Well it took forever to get my LMS launched and the pilot finally happened last Friday. Once I had an actual launch date I was completely consumed trying to get the system ready to show my pilot team.

I'll add this tip to my list of things of things to think about when implementing an LMS....pick a date any date and stick to it. It took a long time to get to the point that I felt 75% comfortable with the product I had, but once I was there I finally (got the nerve) chose a date and shared it with the vendor and pilot participants. This put great pressure on the vendor and myself to MAKE SURE that it was ready to go and was actually launched. There was no holding back and perhaps I should have done this step sooner to push the vendor and even myself into completion.

I've had great feedback so far from about half of the group, which is great. There are many issues that they are coming across which I knew about but weren't sure how they would play out live. There are also many that they are sharing back to me that I did know about but have no idea how to "fix". Then, there are the several interesting ideas about tracking and managing the learners through the system that I never even considered.

I'm quite excited to be at this stage to actually see if the system is actually going to launch live in the hospital. There is a chance it won't measure up to my educators' needs, but there's a chance as well that it will meet what we need for this point in time.

The pilot runs for the next 3 weeks and it will be interesting to see if the big issues to me are big issues to the pilot group or if perhaps I'm being to critical. I'll continue to post regarding this latest process of the LMS implementation.

Take a Test, Any Test...and PASS

Ready for tonight's rant..... (Are you sure? This is a good one...you'll laugh at my woes.)

I'm madly going through the LMS getting it ready for the pilot. Fixing and adding everything I can think of to launch the pilot tomorrow at 2:oo pm.

One of the tasks I had was to create a sample course and get it set up just right so that the pilot group could see the potential of the system and the courses we can develop. I could also can insight into how the system will report on staff taking the course. Sounds great right.....WRONG!!!!

First issue I came across was that I set the course up for 3 attempts at the quiz. So I took the quiz, failed, and exited the course. The course remained in my "active courses". This makes sense. I went back in and the system let me take the quiz 3 more times.....not 2 more. I failed 3 more times, exited the course. The course remained in my "active courses". I, essentially can go in as many times as I want and take the course.

So then....I took out the option of 3 attempts at the quiz. Still no change. I can take the test forever until I pass.

My next brainstorm was changing the tracking from PASS/INCOMPLETE to PASS/FAILED . Could it be that simple? That literal?

YES.

So then....I took the test. Failed. Low and behold the course moved from "active courses" to "completed courses".

NOW HERE IS THE KICKER.
When I looked at my course history it shows that I PASSED THE COURSE AND GOT WHOPPING 40%. Interesting since a pass is at least 80% - and that's being generous on this particular quiz.

Did I mention the pilot launches tomorrow afternoon? I now wonder if there is a high correlation between elearning and drinking. ARGGGG!

LMS Pilot is Launching Friday

All I can say right now is I'm losing my mind. See previous post.

Details to follow regarding this adventure very soon......

Laughing at my own memory lost - Use it or Lose it

Once a month I run two 3 hour computer sessions. They cover the general office productivity software you would expect. Each month I have a good little chuckle at the staff that are taking the course for the second and sometimes third time. They keep taking it, not because the course isn't well received, but because they can't remember what they learned.

The reviews of the course are excellent, but the staff walks away and then doesn't use what they learn right away. By the time they do get to learn the new skills taught in the course they've forgotten what they were in the first place.

Tonight I had to laugh at myself because I've done exactly the same thing. I participated in a workshop at the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering but haven't applied any of that knowledge until the last few days. Now I'm trying madly to remember what I had learned. Was it apply A, B and then C or A, C and then B....uggg. A bit of time has now passed since then and I'm struggling to find notes, demos, and handouts. I've found everything except the handouts and the examples that were shared.

Just one more thing to consider I suppose when creating lessons and workshops for your users. Do you allow them to re-take a course? How many times? Do you have provisions for addressing learners that have misplaced their material weeks, months later? What kind of additional support do you offer once the course has ended?

LMS has brought new stress; therefore new toys

(A few general ramblings below.)

My LMS is hopefully piloting on Tuesday of next week. I've got a couple of things I want tweaked before I send it out, but am getting very hopeful. Not to mention I can feel the fire of many dragons just at the nape of my neck to get it out.

All is very stressful when you have so many tasks before you to complete and your work computer is twice as slow as your home computer. That doesn't seem quite right, however, it may push me towards working in my pjs more often. I'm not sure that's a horrible idea. (It is hard not to picture anyone who says they work at home sitting in front of their computer in flannel pajamas, bunny slippers and coffee right?...mine aren't bunny shaped though).

It's also hard to keep motivated to come into work when the weather has taken a turn for the better. It's been a long, long, cold winter....this proves I'm getting old; I never use to complain about the snow. Seeing the sun com back was invigorating. The weather also then got warmer and many of us Ontario folks have been in shorts this week. This makes it all very hard to want to stay behind the computer instead of getting up and going.

I have for some bizarre reason decided to really get moving and have taken up running (I don't advise this....every time I go out I wonder what the heck I was thinking). I've also started walking every day there has been sun. So far that's been for a few weeks. I'm guessing on of my new toys to purchase is going to be a new umbrella and rubber boots for the rainy days.

Another sign I've been stressed is I went out and got an iPod Touch instead of buying things that I really need (like bunny slippers to work in). Hense the NikeWomen widget at the side of my blog. I'll leave it there for a bit - I know it stretches the blog and I apologize for that to those that need to scroll left/right now. Seems like a neat little workout tool, tracker, etc. gadget to add to my Touch and I'm happy to find/join anyone else who wants a "buddy" using this app. It looks like you can utilize this directly through your computer as well. Give me a shout through twitter and I'd be happy to link up with you and get moving together. Oh an it says NikeWomen, but you can make your avatar look boyish too.

This has been a strange rambling post, but to summarize I'm looking forward to (in no particular order):

• more sun
• more warm weather
• camping
• biking in the woods
• swimming
• campfires
• holidays
• LMS finally working so I can move on to something else

Too Busy To Keep In Touch

I haven't posted much lately because I've been swamped with so many tasks at my office. The entire department seems very overwhelmed lately. For those curious, I am madly working away at my pilot launch. I'm convinced that it will be a go for next Monday. Whether it is at 100% ready to go or not. Those items not working should be noted by my pilot group and their extra input should hopefully reinforce the necessity of these items to work before the go live date to the organization.

I sent a list into the vendor of what needed to be "corrected" and that contained well over 30 items. I've yet to see many of them fixed yet. Again, I'm going into a slight panic mode. I'm very unsure of why they say "Sure, Yes, We'll concentrate on you and get this going in a few weeks." What actually happens is you don't hear from them for a few weeks wondering all the while what is going on and where your project stands.

It's sad that I'm already wishing for the next LMS before this one has even launched. (Dan: you'll be the first one I call as soon as I ever get a budget... :)

We'll this all being said has left me with the urge to write a nasty email to the vendor...again. I get to wishy-washy on the phone and less demanding as I need to be with them.

Wish me luck!

A New Blog is Born

I've mentioned before that I presented at the eLearning Guild's 2009 Annual Gathering on how to create and start your own blog.

Well I'm happy to announce that since that presentation I have been notified of a great new blog that has (so to speak) just "hit the stands".

Please feel free to take a visit by Treehouse Views and read/comment on Michele Stouffer's brand new blog. Michele is an elearning instructional designer at Ford Motor Company and I'm sure we'll all gain much knowledge from her and her experiences in elearning as she moves forward with her blog postings.

If you've started a new blog since the Annual Gathering, drop me a line and I'll be happy to list yours here as well.

Earth Hour 2009 Before and After Pictures

The National Geographic News website has some great pictures of city scapes before and after (or during) Earth Hour. I'm happy to see the Toronto skyline is captured in the pictures.












Photograph by Dick Hemingway via WWF-Canada, retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/photogalleries/earth-hour-before-after/photo4.html, 04/01/09

My Slideshare Presentations Hit 10,000 Views (April fools on me)

(UPDATED: 04/01/09 11:40am... to good to be true.....http://blog.slideshare.net/2009/04/01/happy-april-fools-day/)

I was pleasantly surprised today to get an email from Slideshare notifying me that one of my presentations has had a dramatic increase in views in the last 24 hours. So I went to look and wow, I've had just over 10,000 views of each of the 2 presentations I have up.

One is my slides used during my presentation at the eLearning Annual Gathering this past March. It's topic was Learning From Blogging: Creating your own and Learning from Others'. The other one I have posted was for the GTA Training & Organization Development Network and it's purpose was to introduce the members to some of the new web 2.0 tools being used. Although they don't seem so new a year later.

Such an overwhelming response has piqued me to go back an see if I have others to share. There is at least one that I know I will add: eCollaboration Tools.

Something I face every day with my supervisors is there lack of understanding and slight intimidation of the tools I use daily. They are trying very hard to keep up with my thirst for technology, social networking and everything else 2.0ish. They also appreciate my enthusiasm for using and seeking out new tools, but at the same time are intimidated by anything not on paper. I'm extremely happy that people are looking at these presentations and truly hope that they help others understand some of the web 2.0 tools a little more, but more importantly make them seem less intimidating.

LMS Pilot is Looming Near

Oh this is getting scary. My LMS pilot is scheduled to occur in a few weeks and I'm getting very nervous. There is so much about the system I don't like that I'm now getting very discouraged about the entire thing. Having the fear that it's going to drastically fail is not a good feeling. It certainly is not one I can project to others.

I suppose I need to act as if I'm 100% behind the project, but what if I am not. How do you, on one hand, encourage others to use it and be excited that we now have an LMS, and on the other hand hate the whole thing and wish you could start it all over.

Oh my dilemma is drawing more and more near. I feel a bit like one of those screaming girls in a horror movie that's is running through the woods, in the dark, it's raining, I'm wearing 4 inch stilettos, a heel breaks, and the killer is behind the tree. You just kind of know how it's going to turn out don't you?

Well here's hoping it's actually Bambi behind the tree and not Jason.

(Thanks for listening to the rantings of a sick person implementing an LMS)